Freshman Rep. John Hutchison, R-Harrisburg, has paid a $150 fine levied by the Arkansas Ethics Commission for violating state ethics law, after a Pulaski County circuit judge rejected his challenge to the commission’s ruling last month.

Hutchison paid the fine Aug. 8, commission Director Graham Sloan said Wednesday.

Hutchison said he decided not to appeal Circuit Judge Chris Piazza’s ruling to the state Supreme Court, after considering challenging it.

“I couldn’t come up with the $10,000 [for legal fees and other costs] because it was going to take $10,000 to do it,” he said Tuesday

Hutchison, a farmer, said the commission’s rules need to be “cleaned up” to make them more clear to candidates.

In November, Hutchison narrowly defeated Democratic candidate L.J. Bryant of Grubbs as the Republicans won control of the House for the first time in 138 years in Arkansas.

Hutchison’s case stemmed from an Oct. 9 ethics complaint filed by Jonesboro lawyer Robert Trout, a supporter of Bryant. Trout accused Hutchison of misusing campaign funds.

In February, the commission sanctioned Hutchison by levying a $150 fine and issued him a public letter of caution after he declined the commission’s offer to settle the case by accepting a public letter of caution.

The commission faulted Hutchison because he set up his campaign headquarters at his mother’s house and used $863 in campaign funds to pay for rent and utilities. Last year, Hutchison gave his mother $301.23 for rent in August; paid $289.03 of the electricity bill to Entergy for September; and sent another $273.24 to Entergy for October, reporting the payments on his campaign-finance reports.

Because the payments were to the mother, Kay Hutchison, and the space rented was part of her home, they were improper, essentially converting donors’ money into personal income, the commission said.

Hutchison denied any wrongdoing and said the expenses were legitimate.

Hutchison’s attorney, Bilenda Harris-Ritter of Maumelle, told Piazza last month that Hutchison did not personally benefit from the expenditure and the commission’s regulations don’t clearly state exactly whom candidates should consider family.

The commission “stretched” its rules to include Hutchison’s mother as an immediate family member, said Harris-Ritter.

But commission attorney Jill Rogers Barham countered that a mother’s status as immediate family is not a secret.

“Everybody’s in on that secret, if it’s a secret,” Barham told the judge. “Family always begins with your mother.”

Barham urged the judge to reject the argument that Hutchison had not personally profited from the expenditure, saying the payments themselves were improper under the law regardless of whether Hutchison benefited from them.

Northwest Arkansas, Pages 10 on 08/23/2013